This invention relates to a control apparatus for guiding a route, and more particularly, to a control apparatus for recognizing a hand of a user and controlling an apparatus depending on a motion of the hand of the user.
Apparatus required for traveling, apparatus for creating a comfortable space, and switches operated by a user for controlling these apparatus are installed on a vehicle. Examples of the apparatus required for traveling include a steering wheel, mirrors, lights, and turn signals. Examples of the apparatus for creating a comfortable space include an air conditioner, an audio, and a car navigation apparatus.
As the number of these apparatus installed on the vehicle increases and as the number of functions for operating these apparatus increases, the number of switches tends to increase. The increase in number of the switches and the advanced functions of the switches make operations for controlling the apparatus complicate, resulting in a load imposed on a driver. Therefore, an interface for decreasing the number of switches to decrease the load imposed on the driver needs to be provided.
For example, as a non-contact interface, an interface for detecting a gesture of a user (behaviors including body motions and hand motions) and controlling an apparatus based on the detected gesture is known. This interface eliminates necessity of the operation of switches by the user, and enables control of apparatus by means of the gestures which can be intuitively used, resulting in reduction in the load imposed on the driver. However, in the case where the number of installed apparatus is large as exemplified by the vehicle, even if the number of switches can be reduced, the number of motions of gesture required for operating the apparatus increases, resulting in a load imposed on the driver.
As the background art in this technical field, there is a technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2004-171476. This publication includes a description, “The hand pattern switch apparatus recognizes, based on shapes of the hand and fingers recognized from an input image of the camera 3, that the driver (switch operator) has an intention to operate a switch apparatus, and then, the switch control target setting means 14 recognizes subsequent shapes and motions of the hand and fingers, selects one control target out of a plurality of grouped control targets, and outputs predetermined switch operation information. A plurality of switches for each of the control targets are grouped into sets of switches similar in form of operation and adjustment, and the switches in the set can be associated with each other so that it becomes easier to remember, resulting in an increase in operability”.